Seventh Annual Diversity Report

Read past years’ reports: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018 and 2017.

After several years of what appeared to be progress in diversity, equity and inclusion efforts around the nation, many of these initiatives have come under fire, particularly after the Supreme Court ruling dismantling affirmative action. At The Marshall Project, we reinvested in our goals to create a diverse and inclusive workplace, and introduced several initiatives to help us better achieve those goals. And while we are extremely proud of our progress, we acknowledge that our efforts are far from complete.

Progress in 2023

Our team continued another year of growth, with The Marshall Project making 15 permanent new hires across all departments. Among those: 7 (or 47%) described themselves as people of color.

4 self-identified as Black or African American

1 self-identified as Asian

1 self-identified as Hispanic / Latino

1 self-identified as two or more races

Our permanent staff now consists of 73 individuals. 40 staff members (or 55% of staff) self-identify as people of color. Among those:

19 (or 26% of total staff) self-identify as Black or African American

10 (or 14% of total staff) self-identify as Asian or Asian American

6 (or 8% of total staff) self-identify as Latino or Hispanic

5 (or 7% of total staff) self-identify as two or more races

Additionally, 1 person did not self-report their race or ethnicity information.

56% of the staff self-identify as female, 41% as male, and 3% as nonbinary. 5 staff members (or 7%) are formerly incarcerated.

Beginning in 2020, we began using a framework similar to the NFL’s “Rooney Rule” to ensure all hiring finalist pools included at least one person of color. We have continuously refined our job descriptions and postings, recruiting, screening, and interviewing techniques to make sure we are attracting and considering a wide and diverse range of applicants. We will continue to improve and standardize our hiring practices and actively seek, recruit, and support diverse candidates in 2024.

Our Work in 2023

Evolving recruiting and hiring practices

In 2023, we began hosting a series of live webinars with hiring managers for some of our job postings. As opposed to granting individual calls to candidates who reached out or got an introduction from a friend, we felt an open, public forum would be a more equitable way to answer questions about the roles and expand the diversity of our hiring pool. We aim to increase the mix of candidates who get their questions answered and are then able to submit a more complete, robust application.

Updated benefits designed with inclusion in mind

We knew our past policy of 5 sick days per year wasn’t enough time for staff. But when we researched 27 other organizations, we learned our policy put us near the bottom. This meant that we were under-serving parents and caregivers, anyone with a chronic illness, and staff taking mental health days; so we changed our policy. We now offer 12 sick days per year (which were made available immediately in 2023). Additionally, The Marshall Project added and updated several other policies about staff leaves: Medical leave (previously available on an ad hoc basis) was codified and rolled out (up to 30 days). Parental leave increased for employees (from 12 to 20 weeks). This applies to everyone who has worked at The Marshall Project for at least 3 months. Pregnancy loss leave introduced (up to 2 weeks).

Showing up across the industry

As The Marshall Project has done since its inception, one of our key goals is to model responsible news coverage of the criminal justice system — anchored in rigorous fact-finding and intensive reporting. One of the ways we did this in 2023 was by investing in our presence at a range of industry conferences, sending staff both as speakers and participants. In partnership with the Investigative Reporters and Editors conferences (NICAR and IRE), we offered mentoring office hours to their members. We met with more than three dozen journalists across both conferences.

We continued our support for and attendance at the national professional organizations serving journalists from historically marginalized identities and communities. These included: the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ), the National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ), the Indigenous Journalists Association (IJA), and NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists.

We also partnered with other nonprofit investigative newsrooms for a career fair booth (NAHJ), a careers panel and coffee networking session (AAJA), and an Investigative Task Force reception (NABJ). The Marshall Project was invited to be an inaugural host newsroom for the newly relaunched Chips Quinn Scholars, a national program working to develop diverse leaders in newsrooms.

Continuing our efforts to provide digital security and safety resources for our staff, The Marshall Project participated in the International Women’s Media Foundation’s News Safety Cohort, where we joined peer newsrooms for training, coaching to help with policy writing and documentation, and overall support in an evolving digital world. Following our kick-off work in 2022 with PEN America, we also made the DeleteMe service available to all staff.

Building a strong remote culture

As part of our second year of rapid growth, we sought to improve our onboarding to make sure that all staffers had equal access to information and practices. We found that new staff were still meeting their colleagues somewhat randomly, and therefore often received new information in an ad-hoc manner. In order to resolve this inequity, we are continuing to update and invest in our orientation process for new staff. From clearly identifying roles and workflows, to introducing a software tool that automates reminders and repeat communications, we have invested significant resources into listening for feedback and iterating on our onboarding process. And we hear it’s working — several new staff members described their onboarding experience as “thorough” and “thoughtful.” Next, we’re in the process of designing and rolling out a framework for a more detailed new staff orientation welcome program, with a goal of piloting our first virtual “welcome” cohort in early 2024.

We hope to equip new staff with a firm understanding of where The Marshall Project has been and where we are headed, so they can clearly reach success in their role and help us meet our goals. After evaluating lessons from the launch of our first local newsroom, and working with TMP-local leadership, we’ve improved the local onboarding process.